Mikkeller is a

microbrewery Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

founded in 2006 in

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that was originally based on the so-called "cuckoo", "phantom" or "

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" ethos; that is, the company did not operate an official brewery and, instead, collaborated with other brewers to produce their recipes or experimental one-off brews. The company now operates four breweries, Mikkeller Brewing in San Diego, Warpigs, a brewpub in Copenhagen, Mikkeller Brewpub London and Baghaven, a brewery and Blenderia in Copenhagen. Mikkeller was founded by two home brewers: Mikkel Bjergsø, a high school teacher, and journalist Kristian Klarup Keller. Both sought to introduce their home-brewed beer to the public and to "challenge beer friends with intense new tastes", drawing inspiration from the American breweries that "aren't afraid to play and break all the rules".

History

Inception and development: 2005–2007

Before founding the company, self-taught home brewers Bjergsø and Keller experimented on brewing, first by trying to clone existing beers. After success in

blind tasting Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...

s, the two started creating their own recipes and entered many home brewing competitions in Denmark, eventually winning many of them. The brewery's activity was small, with a low level of public visibility, as the brewing was kitchen-based and the beer was only served at a few beer enthusiast meetings and in small local bars. Bjergsø's brother founded a beer shop in 2005 and began to distribute the pair's beer to select destinations in numerous countries. In 2006, encouraged by wider appeal, Bjergsø and Keller founded the Mikkeller brewing company, named after their home brewery operation. In late 2006, an experimental Mikkeller beer called ''Beer Geek Breakfast'' garnered fame for the company when it won in the

stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscrip ...

category of an international beer voting event. Following this recognition, Mikkeller made its first official appearance at the Copenhagen Beer Festival, where the brewery successfully introduced eight different beers, garnering further acclaim. The attention that occurred in the second half of 2006 resulted in an international distribution deal, and to cope with demand, Mikkeller started to brew in established breweries by paying rent for the machinery and costs of the brewing process. Therefore, the small company could continue production even though it did not have the funds to invest in a facility and professional brewing equipment. Keller parted ways with the company in 2007, as he was not interested in production and crafting a greater number of beers, while Bjergsø was eager to constantly create new recipes and tastes. Keller quit brewing in order to pursue his career as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, leaving Bjergsø to oversee the brewery.

Establishment and expansion: 2008 onward

Mikkeller's beers are sold in 50 countries around the world. Mikkeller's style of brewing is considered to be unique, since many of its beers are experimental with novel tastes. During its history, Mikkeller has released around 2000 different beers in a wide variety of styles, including several variations on the same beers (e.g. barrel-aging a beer in oaken barrels from various origins or having contained various spirits). Some of the beers are constantly in production, while most of the products are available for a limited time; or in small batches; or at a certain location; or all of these factors combined. With a high number of different beers and a popular reputation among beer enthusiasts worldwide, the Mikkeller microbrewery struggles to meet the demand for its beer. Consistent with the company's early years, Mikkeller continues to brew solely at a variety of host facilities—mainly at de Proefbrouwerij in Belgium, but also at breweries in Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. All of the various recipes are engineered at Mikkeller's own facility in Copenhagen; altogether, the company's annual output is 17,000 hectolitres i.e. 1,7 million liters of beer. In April 2016, Mikkeller opened its first US brewery in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. The facility had previously been owned by AleSmith, which relocated to a larger space. Mikkeller's relationship with AleSmith goes back to an early interaction between Bjergsø and AleSmith's owner Peter Zein, who offered Bergsø some advice on how to improve his coffee stout. In 2017, Mikkeller announced its second US brewery, located at

Citi Field Citi Field is a baseball park, baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement fo ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The place will also have a bar and a restaurant. In 2020, the Citi Field location closed permanently.

Retail

Mikkeller opened its first brick and mortar brewery in San Diego, California. In March 2013, Mikkeller and another Danish microbrewery, To Øl, opened a second Mikkeller bar in Copenhagen called Mikkeller & Friends. At the same time, a Mikkeller Bottle Shop opened, selling bottled beers from Mikkeller and "other praiseworthy microbreweries around the world". Mikkeller also operates an online web store, where consumers can choose from a small, changing assortment of Mikkeller beer, in addition to merchandise, such as shirts and

glassware upTypical drinkware The list of glassware includes drinking vessels (drinkware) and tableware used to set a table for eating a meal, general glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry. It does not include laboratory gl ...

. In July 2013, the first international Mikkeller bar was opened in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

, through a licensing agreement with an American retailer. The San Francisco bar uses the new "on-the-fly"

beer tap A beer tap is a valve, specifically a tap, for controlling the release of beer. While other kinds of tap may be called ''faucet'', ''valve'' or ''spigot'', the use of ''tap'' for beer is almost universal. The word was originally coined for the ...

s that allows the beer to be poured in a very sophisticated and controlled manner. Beer, nitrogen, and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is tr ...

are blended in a precise manner and the product is served at the correct temperature, with variations applying to different styles of beer. In late 2013, Mikkeller announced the January 2014 launch of its second foreign bar, located in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. The brand partnered with an already established Thai-based beer distribution company and seeks to capitalise on the higher earning capacity of Thai people, as well as tourists. At the opening, one of the owners explained: "... and we thought it was about time to elevate the level of craft beer available in Thailand and, hopefully, expand throughout Southeast Asia." A total of 30 beers are served at the venue, including two microbrews exclusive to Thailand.

Collaborations

In addition to regular brewing, Mikkeller also produces collaborative beers with other breweries, such as BrewDog, To Øl, Nøgne Ø, Lervig Aktiebryggeri, Jester King, Three Floyds, Cigar City, AleSmith and Namgay Artisanal Brewery. Mikkeller has also brewed "house beers" for restaurants (including Michelin starred ones) and bars in Denmark and several other countries. One example is the

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restaurants "Ramen to Biiru" in Nørrebro and Vesterbro, Copenhagen. They are currently working with an Arizona Brewery called Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. Some of the breweries Mikkeller has collaborated with are the result of close past relationships. When working as a mathematics and physics teacher in high school, Bjergsø taught two of his students how to brew beer outside of school hours, and in 2010 they started their own microbrewery, To Øl. Additionally,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, beh ...

-based Evil Twin's founder and operator is Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, Mikkel's twin brother.

Copenhagen Beer Celebration

Since 2012, Mikkeller has organized and hosted a large annual beer festival, the Copenhagen Beer Celebration, which takes place each year in May. The festival mainly features small breweries from around the world, with many of them premiering new beers or small one-off batches of special beer, brewed specifically for the festival. In 2017 the festival was renamed Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen (MBCC).

Awards

Mikkeller won the "Danish Brewery of the Year" award in its inaugural year, in 2006, and again in 2008; in 2009 the award was shared with Hornbeer. Mikkeller has also been judged the fifth best brewery in the world on two occasions. Mikkeller's beers have won multiple awards, too. For example, a

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewi ...

called ''The American Dream'' has won a

RateBeer Beer rating is assessing and evaluating beer using a point system. The process is similar to that used in beer judging competitions, such as those organised by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) in America, though the participants are con ...

's golden award in its category since 2012, and an

imperial stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscrip ...

called ''Beer Geek Brunch Weasel'' has been in top 20 on RateBeer's "Best Beers in the World" chart for six consecutive years, topping at number six in 2009.''RateBeer's Best Awards''

.com.